Best Practices When Deploying VMware vSphere on the HP ProLiant DL980 (updated October 2012)

To install the driver, follow these steps:

1. Power off all virtual machines running on the host and put the host in maintenance mode.

2. Download the HP NMI Sourcing Driver for VMware ESXi 5.0 bundle from the HP support website

(hp.com/support/dl980G7) to a directory on the server’s hard drive, extract it to an online depot, and navigate to

that directory.

3. Transfer the offline bundle to the ESXi host local path, or extract it to an online depot.

4. Install the bundle on the ESXi host using one of the following methods:

a. Install remotely from the client, with the offline bundle contents on an online depot:

esxcli -s <server> -u root -p mypassword software vib install –d

b. Install remotely from the client, with the offline bundle on the ESXi host:

esxcli -s <server> -u root -p mypassword software vib install -d <ESXi

local path><bundle.zip>

c. Install from the ESXi host, with the offline bundle on the ESXi host:

esxcli software vib install -d <ESXi local path><bundle.zip>

5. After the bundle installs, reboot the ESXi host to implement the updates.

6. Optional Step: Verify that the vibs on the bundle are installed on your ESXi host:

esxcli -s <server> -u root -p mypassword software vib list

7. Optional Step: Remove the individual vibs (<vib name> can be identified by listing vibs as shown in the previous

step):

esxcli -s <server> -u root -p mypassword software vib remove –n <vib name>

You can also install offline bundles on an ESXi 5.0x host as a patch, using VMware’s vCenter Update Manager. For more

information and detailed instructions, see the VMware vCenter Update Manager Administration Guide at

vmware.com/support/pubs.

Enabling 44-bit Address mode for >1 TB memory support in VMware ESXi

VMware ESXi 5.x now has the ability to address more than 1 TB of system memory. To accomplish that, the system must

be able to address more than 40-bits of memory at a time, which is its default address mode.

To enable the 44-bit address mode for >1 TB memory support, follow these steps:

1. Reboot the server and press F9 when prompted during POST.

2. Navigate through the BIOS menu to Advanced Options > Advanced System ROM Options > Address Mode 44-bit.

3. Select Enabled (see Figure 10).